Leya Nordahl
Leya Nordahl is a Kazulian politician who formerly served as Minister of Finance. She has previously held the positions of Deputy Statsminister and leader of Frisinnede Venstre, a centre-right political party. Life Nordahl was born in 3860 in Lamond, Hent region. Her parents were hoteliers. After high school, Nordahl first spendt a year as an au-pair-girl in Rildanor before starting to study political science at University of Hent, where one of her teachers was Professor Hans Granlund, who founded Frisinnede Venstre in 3886. Nordahl, who at one point worked as his research assistant, helped him in recruiting members and donors and became deputy leader at the same time when she was completing her Masters' degree under his guidance. During her early political career, she also worked as a TV journalist for a short period of time, hosting talk shows on current issues and debates. She was elected to the Storting in 3889 for Hent. Politics In the Storting, she supported Granlund's leadership and acquired a reputation as a confrontative parliamentarian. After Granlund had announced his retirement, she took over the leadership of FV from him in 3898. The first election under her command was a disaster for FV, leaving it with only five seats, which some observers claimed was a result of her image as a "nasty" person with hard-right fiscal views. However, she managed to consolidate the party's vote share in subsequent elections and achieved a stunning breakthrough in the 3910 elections, following which FV entered government and Nordahl rose to the position of Finance Minister.+ Finance Minister As Finance Minister, she pursued a strict austerity course and managed to cut the budget deficit by 75%. Her declared intention to cut taxes at the same time was only achieved after considerable struggles and an emergency compromise with the opposition Folkepartiet, which left Nordahl with no choice but to water down her tax policies, which had previously focused on reducing rates for the wealthiest Kazulians, which stood at 65%. Her policies at the treasury were fervently opposed by the opposition Arbeiderpartiet, whose criticism reinforced her image as nasty and cold-hearted. However, Nordahl was effective in countering the opposition's attacks with her trademark caustic rhetoric and her unwavering commitment to the task of reducing the deficit while cutting taxes. While still in charge of the Finance department, she retired as leader of FV in 3913 after fifteen years in that position. Erwin Schausberger, whom she had brought into politics almost a decade earlier, was elected her successor. After the general election of 3914, she retained her portfolio and was once again put in charge of fiscal affairs. This time, she was able to pass sweeping spending cuts and implemented her long-time plan of flattening progression and slashing the upper rate of tax in particular. She also appointed former Statsminister Hanne Endal as Governor of the Kazulian Reserve Bank, worsening infighting in the Labour party between moderates and radicals. Nordahl announced that she would retire from politics after her budget passed in October 3917. She has been called the most radical treasurer since Martin Sæterbø, cutting the size of the state back to the level it had before Mathias Nilsen became Statsminister. Political Views Nordahl is seen as a conviction politician with a liberal-conservative, decidedly right-wing outlook. Under her leadership, FV embraced a more conservative and populist model of classical liberalism and became critical of Kazulia's generous and permissive immigration policies. On economic issues, she is perceived as a budget hawk with an attachment to neoliberal and monetarist economic doctrine. Controversies Nordahl has frequently been criticized for her confrontative style and divisive rhetoric, which some say has led to a deterioration in Kazulia's political culture. In the Storting she is considered an effective performer at the dispatch box, but has a tendency to lose her cool and attack her opponents personally. Among other things, she has called Labour politicians Jonas Hogstad and Halvor Sæterbø a "Metzist moron" and a "spoilt, snotty-nosed brat", respectively. Some of her more eccentric attacks have produced lines such as questioning her opponents' mental sanity or calling Sæterbø "the ideological love child of Mathias Nilsen and the tooth fairy" and comparing him to Count Dracula. To the great outrage of the opposition, she also once declared that "if politics is really the entertainment industry for ugly people, then the Labour party must be the recruiting agency". Comments like these have earned her frequent reprimands from the Speaker of the Storting. Category:People of Kazulia